Smack me with a proverbial hammer...

I have recently gotten a few reviews of my hubs and they mostly say I am doing well. This is not what I am looking for. I need a blunt full blown smack in the face with my writing. Many of my articles are sitting in the 60's and currently I have no idea if this is based off writing skill. I've read many good articles and have tried many suggestions already, so im looking more for writing based issues. Let the hammer come down! Thanks everyone!

I read the geocaching hub. As I know only a little about the subject, I was a good person to read it.

First off, the "lead" needs to be smaller and more precise. It kind of dragged on with "get your kids out of the house...into the woods...exercising...taking photographs, etc." I'd recommend narrowing it down a bit.

After reading it, I still don't understand what a travel bug or geo coin is or how they work.

The section with bullets was a huge help.

I thought the article wound up nicely.

Visually, it could use a bit more impact. Perhaps more pictures? How about pictures of your family going on a geocache?

Remember, you asked for it. I skimmed your hubs, with the following observations:

Most were quite short - four or five hundred words is, in my opinion, marginal. Workable and useful, yes, but marginal. Get some 1000+ word hubs out there - 1000 informative words without fluff (not saying you have fluff, but don't fluff a hub just to get words, either).

HP provides a variety of capsules for a reason - use them. Get some photos (preferably original ones, but correctly attributed ones if not) in there. Maybe a video here and there. Stick a sidebar text capsule in once in a while. Maybe a quiz or poll. Anything to break up long text sections and keep a reader occupied and on site for longer periods.

Be very leery of "part one" and "part two" hubs, particularly with very similar titles. Google doesn't like similar titles in general and I don't think readers like being shuttled to another page to finish the article. If there is too much information (as in 3000+ words) for one hub, split it up, but do not make part one and part two titles.

Even recipe hubs simply must be over the 200 words you have. Either get rid of them or provide something more - history, perhaps, or alternative methods.

Amazon capsules are very seldom effective placed at the end of a hub. If you use them, make the products specific to what the hub is discussing. If the hub is about aloe vera, push the plant or seed - not a book - and put the capsule right next to where you discuss the product. Gaining amazon sales is not a haphazard coincidence - you must be a salesman and give the reader a reason to buy.

I found a (very) few grammar or spelling errors, but they could use a once over one more time anyway.

Information is good as far as it went - there just usually needs to be more of it.

I did not check the "searchability" of your titles or keywords, but if you are not using the google keyword tool, be sure you do.

I just read your hub on Going Green and I thought it looked OK. I'd remove the exclamation marks from the Amazon capsules and attribute the last photo but other than that, I didn't see anything that made me go "eww."

I popped into your Deviled Egg recipe. You need photos for recipe hubs to hold people's interest. It also needs to be a lot longer. More dialogue. I would use the "manly deviled egg" approach since I'm guessing you are a man from your profile pic? I'd use that angle if I could because it's not a common approach to deviled eggs, but that's just my opinion. If you want to see what I'm talking about, jump over to my hub that I posted today about How to Cook Chicken Offal and see what I mean by dialog and lots of photos. People and Google like lots of pretty pictures and lots of talkin'!

You can use any YouTube video in your hubs. It doesn't have to be yours and you don't have to cite them.

Related Discussions

Since I was turned down by HP regarding their apprenticeship program due to the fact that "you don't write well enough" (I so wish I didn't delete that email) yet I'm still allowed to write hubs which apparently are subpar then are they keeping me here so their pockets get fuller? ...

I just got this email. Is terminating your account normal if you don't have any sales or referrals in 90 days????Hello,Thanks again for joining the Amazon Associates program. We’re reaching out to you because we have not seen sales activity on your account.At the time your application was...

Hello Hubbers! I was wondering if there is a recommended maximum length for a hub? I started writing one, and then realized that I have enough information to write a book. So I decided to break the info into eight parts (translation: eight hubs). I started writing part one, then realized that i...

I understand you've decided to take a cue from Squidoo and you've chosen to make at least one rule unclear on purpose. It's creating more work for everyone and alienating the people who produce the content you sell ads on by either making it clear you don't trust or respect us or that you are so...

I have: 10 hubs 30 highly pertinent Amazon products (3 per hub on average)1300 page views427 unique visitors and many returning visitors1:18 min average page durationBUT ONLY 1 AMAZON CLICK, which I got the day I signed up!What's going on?

I just got this in my email;---A link to your Hub: http://hubpages.com/living/your-balcony-gardenDear AnnaMKB,We wanted to let you know that Your Balcony Garden was reviewed by a moderator and defeatured for not meeting HubPages' quality standards. Don't worry, you can edit your Hub to give it a...

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

This is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)

Google AdSense Host API

This service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)

This is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)

Facebook Login

You can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)

Maven

This supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)

We may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.

Conversion Tracking Pixels

We may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.

Statistics

Author Google Analytics

This is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)

Comscore

ComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)

Amazon Tracking Pixel

Some articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)